One last time...onto our last country FIJI!!!

It seems like just yesterday we said goodbye to our family and friends and set off on our journey!

After close to 18 months, we are finishing our Asia-Oceania voyage. It has been the most excellent adventure, and we have learned so much about ourselves, as well as this great, yet complicated world we live in.

Our year in Jeju, Korea was a learning experience. We learned how to teach! We'll always remember the joys we felt when seeing our students, young and old, grasp a difficult English concept, or just learn how to pronounce the letters L, P, B, and R! Our life in Jeju quickly felt comfortable and homey thanks to our Jeju and Yale academy friends and family. We loved every moments spent at the beach, learning to surf, playing volleyball and 3-man, ultimate and rugby practices and tournaments, hand-and-foot card competitions, bike rides and hikes on beautiful Hallasan, and weekly feeds under the bridge in Jungmun, at the Panchan restaurant in Seogwipo, or of the most delicious indian food in Jeju-shi. We'll always remember our one year in Korea and we hope to meet up with our Jeju family sometime in the future!

We left our home of Seogwipo after a beautiful morning on the beach, how fitting! For the next 5 and a half months we would travel and explore. Through China by train, waiting at the stations with thousands of Chinese staring blatantly at the tall travelers and accepting random dried fish and unidentifiable foods while in our sleeping berths, walking the Great Wall with a back drop of an azure sky, and simply watching the million bicycles whiz by.

Vietnam we encountered our fabulous traveling friends whom we shared great experiences with all down the country - in Sapa, walking with the Hamong tribe women, drinking Bia Hoi and rice wine, bringing in 2007 around a huge bonfire in Mui Ne with good friends and cheap rum, renting motorbikes and driving with local kids to the sand dunes, and taking little rickety wooden boats up the Mekong Delta to Cambodia.

In Cambodia we experienced the real dichotomy of what life is like there - extreme wealth and extreme poverty, side by side throughout the whole conflict ridden country. Days were spent wandering or biking through the magical Angkor Wat temples. We could actually imagine what life was like in the Angkor empire hundreds of years ago.

Continuing along from 140kms of pot-whole ridden dirt roads in Cambodia to Thailand. We'll always cherish the time we spent with our friends in Mae Sot, experiencing just a smidgen of what life is like for displaced Burmese refugees living on the border. We were so lucky to go to the refugee camp. It opened our eyes to a reality that none of us could even fathom. From the North where we road a tiny motorbike through the elephant camps and dense forests to the silken white beaches in the South, we enjoyed it all.

The next leg of the journey was New Zealand, a country we soon felt at home in, thanks to the hospitality of our friends in Wellington. NZ for us was all about exploring the outdoors, and we did that both in the North and South island with fabulous weather, minus the chilly southerly winds from the Antarctic!. Hiking the Southern crossing, Kepler track, Abel Tasman, Queen Charlotte track and Mueller hut all at "John speed" gave us an appreciation for the stunning mountains and coasts of this unique country. With only 2 months in NZ we didn't have enough time to do and see everything, or spend enough time with our dear friends.

It was off to Australia, where we apparently needed a visa. With everything sorted out in the nick-of-time, we arrived in Sydney to hot summer weather. We shared our Eastern road trip with our trusty Speedy ghetto van, crocs, monitor lizards, wild turkeys, roos, poisonous snakes, box jellies and reef sharks! An adrenalin inspiring journey! We swam with the brilliant array of sea life at the Great Barrier Reef, drove long stretches of barren road bordered only by sugar cane, played in the ever-salty ocean, ran on squeaky white sand beaches, and surfed in turbulent waves.

And, alas, we are now at present time, staying with friends in Sydney. Incredible how fast our time has flown by! We are getting ready for the last country, tropical Fiji, and we can't really believe that this journey is coming to an end! Tomorrow we catch a plane to Fiji, then its off island hopping for 18 days in the Yasawas.

We just want to thank everyone for supporting us on this stupendous adventure of ours. To our Jeju fam, new travel friends throughout Asia, old friends whom we visited throughout our journey who made us feel oh-so welcome, and everyone at home who have been wishing us well the whole time, as well as keeping us updated on the real-world!

This will most likely be the last email from our journey, so WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Karina and Christian "big beard"

Pics down the coast

Hello everyone,

This is me with my beard and the new hat.

A mornning sunrise although we have been up for at least 2 hours and have already eaten and gone for run. Us on Straddie, we walked around the small island for the day and had a lot of fun.


We got many smiles from many drivers one they past us. I am pretty sure it's from we had on the backend of the van. They always seemed to be looking at me.









This day, we were in Coffs Harbour and we rented boards for the day. We had a lot of fun as the waves got bigger and bigger. We got up alot but the waves were crashing pretty hard and we tried our best. We still have alot to learn but as you see in the next picture. Karina is a natural.



We hope to a few more pics up before we leave.

Later

Christian and Karina

Last days in Aus

Hello again and maybe the last till we get to Canada since we don't know how accessible the internet will be on the islands in Fiji. We are healthy and happy to have completed the journey down the coast. We have driven 4400 kms in about 25 days. We have camped in many different towns along the way. It has been a been incredible to see all the beaches and the different lanscapes in the North and the South. We have loved our van although at times it isn't the easiest since you never know if someone will wake you up in the middle of the night and tell you to move. It only happened once but it was a big shock when it happened in Byron Bay at 6h30 in the morning and they dtold us to move in 30 seconds or we would get a 150 $ fine each. We left in 10.

We have spent the last two days at Bondi beach in the east of Sydney. It is more of a glamorous beach but there was some amazing surf and plenty of people around. We parked on the streets at night and then would make our way back to the beach to relax and people watch.

Today, we brought the van back. We said our last goodbyes to our home. It didn't break down and we didn't get a ticket since we never really made over the speed limit. The whole trip was amazing and I can't wait to come back here to visit the west coast and the rest of the country. We have a blast and will be back one day.

Off to Fiji for 18 days and then back to Canada. We can't wait to see the islands and it all.

Bye
Christian and Karina

From North to South

Hey everyone! We have covered the 4000 + kms and we are back in Sydney! What a journey it has been! We spent the last couple of days in some fun beach towns.

In Coffs Harbour we rented surf boards and played in the waves as they gradually got larger and larger! We were both able to catch a few good waves. Reminded us of Jeju. Miss all you jeju friends!

Continued onto Port Macquarie. We ran on Lighthouse beach for what seemed like hours! It just didn't end! The sand was brilliant white and it actually squeaked when we walked on it! Bizarre!

From Port we drove to Seal Rocks. It was one of the first drizzly days we've had, so we took some much needed time to just relax, and catch up on some reading and writing in our Speedy van. Loved the sign by the beach that announced "Please don't harass or follow the sharks. If you happen to catch a grey nurse shark or a great white, please release it with care. They are endangered species." I figured I'd have to release it with my arms or some other limb attached. SO we didn't swim here!

Onto Port Stevens and Nelson Bay, near Newcastle. Walked and ran all around these coastal towns, and took advantage of the beautiful beaches. Most of the little towns have parks right on the water with bbq, showers, and public toilets! These have been fabulous! We know where most of the public facilities are all the way down the coast! While most people will just use the showers to wash off the ocean water, then head for home, we have full out showers here, fully lathered, washing clothing! Its such a simple life! Love the looks we get from people!

Anyways, the ocean is getting cooler, as are the nights. Burr, the South! How strange! Winter here though is still pretty great!

Currently we're in beach town Bondi. Loads of people all around, tons of surfers out on the water! We'll stick around here for a day or 2, take in the market tomorrow, then its back off to central Syd to drop off good ol' Speedy, and prep for Fiji (aka do 1 month worth of laundry!)

Hope everyone is doing great. All our love.

To all the moms out there- YOU'RE THE BEST!!! Happy mothers day!

Pics

Hey, it's a very tired lion.

Karina and I relaxing in a national park by the water.
A beautiful sunsut at Rainbow beach. The colours are so rich.
This a pic of the extremely long beach at surfer's paradise. It was amazing to see all the people out in the morning doing exercise.

The wicked camper crossing the river. No prob for a pro driver although I am going to be confused when I get home and have to drive on the right side of the road.
Us and the fam before we left for Australia. Eden is so cute.
Karina siting on the steps of the Opera house in Sydney.
Me with my two favorite things, operas and bridges.

Our home, the camper that is letting us travel the coast. It's a little slow up hill and we have aqlready put 3000 kms on it so we hope it keeps on going.

Later

Christian and Karina

The Sunshine and Gold Coast

Hello everyone,

Everything is great and we are having a great time in our camper van. We have been driving a little and enjoy the weather alot. We are now in Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast and it's a very very develloped resort city. All of the Gold coast is the same so we are really happy that we spend 2 days on Rainbow beach on the Sunshine Coast. The beach was amazing and the village was really small and pretty. We spenr our time enjoying the weather and it was amazing.

Then we went to Brisbane but we didn't stay long since it was a big city like any other and we can see that at home. Today, we went to North Stadebroke Island near brisbane and it was a picturesque little island about a 45 minute boat ride from the coast. We saw a hugh pod of dolphins and some turtles. It was nice to visit the island that had beaches surrounding it. We spend the day on the beach again and then in the afternoon we left to visit the Gold Coast. It is a big tourist area that we will probable skip as much as possible.

We are going to a National Park tomorrow to get some hiking in and then to Byron Bay to surf if it's not too busy. It's a long weekend and we've heard it usually means everything is little busier. We'll see. We are still headind down the coast and we'll probably be in Sydney on the 13th of May to prepare for our next step of the journey.

Another thing, Happy birthday Matt. Hope you had a good 29th brithday. Can you believe we are almost 30?

Later

Christian and Karina